Two important visits this week show that the ANC government has finally stopped sulking and turned the corner to warmer relations with former members of the Soviet Union and its satellites.
There are several theories as to why President Nelson Mandela has been pouting at countries that indubitably backed his liberation struggle to the hilt.
These will remain theories until memoirs are written explaining exactly how these friends offended the ANC.
When Deputy President Thabo Mbeki arrived in icy Moscow last Sunday it broke a six-year freeze. The best guess is this had been brought on by the 1992 official visit by then President FW de Klerk.
The Russians insist that they had cleared it out with the ANC before resuming relations with South Africa while it was still under National Party rule.
Nevertheless, there remains an impression that Moscow and other former Soviet republics jumped the gun by not waiting until Mandela was in the Union Buildings before tying the knot.
Officials of several east and central European countries admit that their eagerness to get in at the ground floor and to be up and running by the time the ANC came to power has cost them dearly.
These important transition countries are the most neglected area in South Africa's foreign policy. There is no economic or ideological reason that this should be so. These are countries that could provide South Africa with new markets and an important back door into Europe.
These nations have had a succession of overtures rebuffed. Bilateral agreements have been shelved pending signature for years. Some accords that have been signed have never been enacted.
Dozens of ministerial visits, both to and from South Africa, have been cancelled without proper explanation.
Poland's former president, Lech Walesa, virtually had his bags packed when he was advised it would not be convenient to receive him.
Since 1993 the Poles have wondered aloud whether their bilateral relations with South Africa still suffer because one of their nationals, Janusz Walus, killed the leader of the SA Communist Party, Chris Hani.
Other countries in the region don't have such concrete possibilities to speculate about. Bulgaria and the Slovak Republic maintain that the South African embassies in their capitals were closed before they had been given adequate opportunity to demonstrate the value of close, representational ties.
By all accounts, Mbeki's visit to Moscow this week went well. The strength of his delegation sent the right message, and his programme included enough of both symbolism and substance to satisfy his hosts.
Hopefully, the promise of an official visit by Mandela next year will be kept. A seventh cancellation of a Moscow trip by the president would hose down the goodwill created this week.
The bilateral agreements on cultural, scientific and technological matters are of symbolic value. The real work on relations will have to be with the business delegation that accompanies Mandela next year.
There was nothing to be done this time with a country almost without a leader and unable to honour its government bonds.
Probably the most important statement that Mbeki made in Moscow was to warn Russia against dumping mineral riches on to the world market in a bid to alleviate its immediate pain.
This was the gist of his endorsement of the deal between De Beers and Almazy Rossi Sakha, which will control the movement of diamonds in a manner designed to help Russia pay its debts.
Mbeki also did well to hand off the aircraft manufacturer Yakovlev, which urged South Africa to cancel the recent R29 billion arms procurement deal and give Russia another chance to tender. This embarrassing incident indicates the grave state of affairs in Russia.